Kaohsiung mayor-elect Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) has invited Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) to invest in the city, one of his top aides said yesterday.
Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興), from Han’s election campaign team, confirmed to local media that Han in a telephone call on Sunday with Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) urged the firm, the world’s largest contract electronics maker, to invest in Kaohsiung.
Hon Hai, known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康) internationally, declined to comment on the matter, saying it was inappropriate for the company to disclose any details.
An investment would help Han deliver on his promises to improve the city’s economy.
Both men expressed a desire to cooperate during their conversation, which lasted for almost three hours, and promised to meet for more talks about investment, Yang said.
Hon Hai in 2011 established a foothold in the Kaohsiung Software Park in Cianjhen District (前鎮) as part of its efforts to develop a wider range of applications for use in smartphones, tablet and notebook computers, desktop computers, flat panels, education, Internet communications and cloud-based technology gadgets.
Hon Hai has also inaugurated a high-performance computer system in the park, integrating resources with business partners to develop medical applications and big data analysis, among others.
Kaohsiung City Government data showed that Hon Hai employs 310 at the park, while Innolux Corp (群創), a flat panel unit of Hon Hai, has a workforce of 3,600 in the city.
Citing Gou, Yang said that an investment by Hon Hai in Kaohsiung would help the city build an industrial cluster and pay for more investments, including by foreign firms.
During his campaign, Han said that he hoped to secure investments from Hon Hai to create more jobs.
Han, 61, of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) defeated Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which has governed Kaohsiung since December 1998, as well as independents Chu Mei-feng (璩美鳳) and Su Ying-kuei (蘇盈貴).
After the election on Saturday, Han vowed to carry out his policy platform and spare no effort to boost the economic development of the port city, which he has described as “old and poor.”
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
RSS